Reckoning

The later 1980s were a period of erratic growth—rapid but unstable. Tigers and sea turtles spurred development throughout the decade: East Asia’s “tiger” economies—Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea—paved China’s way in state-led, export-intensive growth. China's “Sea turtles” were the many overseas Chinese who brought capital and knowledge acquired abroad back to their mother country. However, unresolved contradictions lurked in the new political economy of Deng’s China. Frustrations over stalled political reform—enflamed by widespread urban economic grievances over inflation and corruption—erupted in street demonstrations that paralyzed the PRC in the spring of 1989. The Tiananmen crisis would have lasting political repercussions on the cause of democracy—but also unintended economic aftereffects.

Hong Kong Provided China with Capital

Japan Provided Support for Reform

Autocracy and Economic Freedom Brought Growth

Expectations Are the Most Important Growth Factors

Michael Anti

Columnist

Michael Anti, a Nanjing native, is a Chinese columnist, journalist on international affairs and independent blogger. While his background is in not in journalism, Anti began posting political commentary on his own blog in 2001, promoting the ideas of free speech and free press in China. He became famous in 2005 when his blog was deleted by Microsoft at the urging of the Chinese government.

Anti has worked at various news outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the 21st Century World Herald. He was selected to be a Wolfson Press Fellow at Cambridge and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard. In 2009, he was selected by Asia Society to join the Asia 21 Young Leaders Initiative.

Anti graduated from Nanjing Normal University in 1995 with a degree in Industrial Electrical Automation.

If it was a democratic or semi-democratic regime that was committed to Reform and Opening, there could still be economic development. Because one of the important conditions for economic development is not the stability of authoritarianism or totalitarianism but, rather, the country's ability to provide people with a long-term expectation for society. Then, people are willing to bind their property, wisdom, time, and energy to the nation. There might be a lot of instability or political change in the near term but, in the long run, they still believe China will move forward. So, they want to invest. It's like when you invest in options. If I already know what the price of a stock will be next year, no matter what fluctuation there may be in the meantime, I will definitely invest in it. The most important thing is not that the price is always rising during this time, but the belief that, in one year, the price will reach a certain level. During this period, the price can even drop below the current price, I don't care. The belief that the future price will be higher is the most important thing. Deng used his grand vision to give expectations to the social elites of that time. The success of those elites has given their children expectations. The open market, joining the WTO, globalization have given hope to the generation born after 1990. The hope is handed over generation by generation. But there is an unshakeable belief, no matter what kind of political instability occurs, that, in the future, China will maintain a relatively open attitude and will be tied to the whole world.